Leads and customers are the lifeblood of any business. And what connects these two elements can be a landing page. What is it and how to encourage people to take advantage of the offer?
Aleksandra Pietrzak
Even though Google may not approve the implementation of exchanging links in its sphere, its use amongst webmasters seems to be quite prevalent. They are always 1eager to exchange links with other website owners and bloggers by giving it away as well as receiving it. The reason why this practice is highly prevalent despite Google’s disapproval is that it is believed to give the websites a sign of relatability amongst search engines crawlers. When you receive high-quality backlinks, it is believed to give you an added advantage by driving organic traffic to your site.
Many people assume that this practice is prevalent only amongst small bloggers or small website owners who have just ventured into the online sphere but you will be surprised to find out that link exchange is a practice that many significant website owners incorporate to gain a competitive advantage. exchanging content-based links is something millions of website owners can be seen practicing.
Link exchange refers to a platform through which website owners can gain paid access to several websites which are generally of low quality. Through these websites, they can gain several backlinks which lead to a particular site. One can access the exchange HTML code by registering. In simple words, it can be referred to as the practice that involves the exchange of links between different websites. You can insert the link of some other website on your webpage and in exchange, they will return the favor to you by inserting your website’s link on their webpage.
A central organization or platform is used by webmasters to access links. They have to register on the platform and it will perform the exchange of the links for the website through the HTML code. Link exchange takes place when two website owners or brands agree to trade or exchange links to boost their site authority and SEO performance.
There are two basic types of link exchange systems which are as follows:
There are many prominent webmasters using link exchanges to increase the significance of their websites. Despite this, a feeling of uncertainty still lingers in the air for many website owners regarding the legitimacy of its implementation. If you have come across the advice of many traditional SEO experts who do not believe much in link building, they may not have a positive opinion about the implementation of link exchanges. For years, this practice has been a highly debatable topic in the search engine optimization sphere. Many experts may refrain from this use while many others, particularly those who rely heavily on link building, can be seen incorporating its use prominently.
According to the Webmaster Guidelines set by Google, implementing link exchanges seo to an excessive extent is against their terms and policies but keep in mind that it uses the word excessive. This means that a certain number of link exchanges won’t do much harm to your website or won’t make it seem like your website is violating the guidelines set by the search engine. This is because there may be times when websites may have to link to each other’s webpage naturally. For instance, if your website is running a giveaway and the product is available online, it becomes necessary for you to link to that particular product page or website. In such situations, the absence of link exchanges will not make the content inefficient but it will also hamper the user experience which is not something Google desires.
You must bear in mind that Google is an algorithm based on machine learning. Hence, if you are naturally using exchanged links, the search engine will not be able to point out the difference between a natural link exchange and a manufactured link exchange.
Many website owners use reciprocal links to generate increased website traffic, improve site authority, and also boost their search engine optimization performance. In the early 2000s, this was a fairly common practice. However, in recent years, it has been labeled as ‘traded’ or ‘exchanged’ links. Even though they may have witnessed a bit of a downfall in their popularity, they are still used commonly by many website owners. In fact, link exchange systems can be related to the natural byproduct of website operation.
There is no denying that using link exchanges to a great extent can hurt your domain authority because it is displaying that you are incorporating a practice that is against Google’s guidelines and policies. However, as mentioned above, Google also stresses the term ‘excessive’ to indicate that exchanging links to a certain extent is natural and cannot hurt your website’s performance or Google’s functioning.
Developing reciprocal links through linking sources without any personal expectations through authentic outreach is always the better route to gain reciprocal links naturally and avoid the hassle of hurting or negatively impacting your domain’s authority. to avoid engaging in risky link exchange practices, here are some tips you can consider.
Google Manual Action refers to the action that Google can take against a website. It is a manual action that can be issued by the search engine against a website if the webpages on the website are determined to be non-compliant with the quality of the webmaster guidelines set by Google. This complaint can be made to Google by a human reviewer. The human reviewer also can issue an automated penalty or manual penalty which is applied on the concerned website after the complaint. This can result in the web page ranking lower as compared to its previous ranking and can hurt the website’s overall performance.
Google administers this action when they find that a site is trying to manipulate their search index through link exchanges seo practice. Because they are devoted to delivering high-quality and relevant user experience, they are focused on implementing guidelines and policies that do not hamper the quality of user experience negatively.
Black hat SEO refers to a search engine optimization practice that violates the guidelines set by search engines. It is often implemented to enable a website to rank higher on the search results page. The incorporation of black hat SEO can lead the search engine to issue a penalty against the website which can consequently hurt their ranking and online presence. Some of the most prevalent black hat SEO techniques are article spinning, keyword stuffing, excessive link exchanging, duplicate content, cloaking, doorway pages, and hidden pages to name a few.
Exchanging links to a great extent is a bad practice in the eyes of Google. The search engine is strictly against the implementation of buying and selling links. It has been explicitly stated in their Webmaster Guidelines that if any link tries to manipulate the ranking metrics set by the search engine and comes across as part of a link scheme, it will be regarded as a violation of Google’s terms and conditions. Therefore, there is no denying that link exchanges fall into the practice of black hat SEO to some extent. Google recognizes that sometimes, using backlinks is an inevitable need, and therefore, it is a natural requirement and occurrence. However, it does not tolerate the excessive implementation of the same.
Using link exchanges in moderation is not a bad practice. However, at the same time, many website owners tend to overuse it which leads search engines to take action against their website. This can result in the concerned website’s ranking decreasing and this can lead to a reduction in the website’s traffic. Low traffic can harm the overall performance of the website.
While search engines do have strict policies against the dominant exchanges of links and the use of black hat SEO, naturally using reciprocal links can produce effective and positive results for your website. Therefore, exchanging links must be done with alertness. Avoid using it as a core link-building strategy. When you start getting more requests for reciprocal links, the opportunity may feel highly tempting but you must ensure that the link is relevant to your website and your traffic can gain some value from it. In this way you can use the reciprocal links to your website’s advantage.
Aleksandra PietrzakAleksandra PietrzakiCEA GroupGet started
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